


the k-sci babysitter's club

by zach_stone



Series: hermann is dad [3]
Category: Pacific Rim (Movies)
Genre: Babysitting, Bonding, Fluff, Gen, Hermann Gottlieb: Babysitter Extraordinaire, Pre-Canon, Pre-Relationship, if the "pre-relationship" tag did not make that clear lol, newmann is hinted at but they're not together yet
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-16
Updated: 2018-12-16
Packaged: 2019-09-20 07:21:01
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,665
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17018244
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/zach_stone/pseuds/zach_stone
Summary: Pentecost asks Hermann to watch Mako and Jake for a few hours. It goes much better than expected.





	the k-sci babysitter's club

**Author's Note:**

  * For [freezerjerky](https://archiveofourown.org/users/freezerjerky/gifts).



> here's fic #2 for the wonderful lindsey, once again featuring hermann and kids! this one is sort of a prequel to [this fic of mine](https://archiveofourown.org/works/15830940), and is once again a niche enough concept that i'm sure it will rly only appeal to me, lindsey, and like 3 other people, but we out here. also, idk a timeline so we're just playing fast and loose with ages and locations and logic at this point. 
> 
> lindsey, i really hope you like this one!!

“Thank you for doing this,” the Marshal says. He has a hand on the shoulder of each of his children. Twelve-year-old Mako is looking up at Hermann with quiet interest, while six-year-old Jake is already fidgeting under his father’s hand. “It should only be for a few hours.”

“Of course,” Hermann says immediately. The lab is quieter than usual today; Newton has taken most of his interns along with him to retrieve a kaiju sample off base, and will likely be gone until late. Hermann’s interns mostly keep to themselves, though he catches a couple of them glancing over their shoulders curiously now. Likely wondering why on earth Marshal Pentecost is asking _Dr. Gottlieb_ of all people to watch his children. Frankly, Hermann’s not quite sure himself — he doesn’t think he’s very good with children, but he’s not about to say no to the Marshal.

Pentecost nods to Hermann, and then bends down so he can face both of his children. “Now you listen to Dr. Gottlieb, and don’t disrupt his work, understand? He’s doing very important research.”

Hermann is _very_ grateful that Newton isn’t here to laugh at the way he flushes under the Marshal’s praise. “They’re in good hands, sir, I promise you.”

“I have no doubt,” Pentecost says. “I’ll be back soon.” He nods to Herman and strides out of the lab. Mako and Jake turn to look up at Hermann expectantly.

“Er,” Hermann says. “Hello.”

“Dad says you help make jaegers!” Jake exclaims. “Where are the ones you make?” He looks around the lab, taking in Hermann’s chalkboards and computers. Then his eyes fall on the specimen tanks on the other side of the lab. “Are those _kaiju_?!”

Hermann winces, but before he can say anything, Jake is bounding across the room to press his face up against one of the tanks. A floating bit of viscera bobs around in sickly green fluid. Hermann and Mako catch up to Jake, and Mako grabs him by the arm and tugs him away from the tank.

“Father said to behave,” she reminds him. She flashes Hermann an apologetic smile. “Sorry, Doctor.”

“It’s alright,” Hermann says, a bit flustered. He turns to Jake. “Yes, these are pieces from a kaiju, but they’re dead. People like your father helped to stop them, and now we’re studying them to make sure we can stop any new ones that arrive.” He puts a hand on Jake’s shoulder and guides him back over to his side of the lab. As much as the tanks might be a good way to occupy Jake’s attention, Hermann doesn’t trust Newton or his interns to keep their side of the room in any condition that’s sanitary for small children.

“I wanna be a pilot one day, just like my dad was,” Jake says. “And Mako is gonna be my Drift partner!”

“Is that right?” Hermann asks, unable to stop a small smile from crossing his face. He remembers being young and dreaming of traversing the stars. “Well, hopefully by the time you’re old enough to be a pilot, there won’t be any more kaiju to fight.”

Jake looks somewhat disappointed at that thought. Hermann realizes both children don’t remember a time before kaiju — practically born into war, they don’t know of a world without the threat of annihilation hanging over its head. His smile fades and he glances up at his chalkboards with a sigh. Somewhere in the numbers is a solution that will close the Breach for good and ensure that Mako and Jake never have to face another monster.

They’ve reached Hermann’s side of the lab again, and the children are both clearly waiting for him to say something. “Ah, here’s an idea for you,” he says, going over to his desk and rummaging around in the drawers. “Why don’t you design your jaeger for me, hm?” He pulls out a few sheets of notebook paper and a handful of pens.

Mako takes the proffered items. “Like a blueprint?”

He smiles at her. “Yes, exactly. Draw me a blueprint.”

“Yeah!” Jake says excitedly. Hermann pulls an extra chair up to his desk so both children can sit. Jake uncaps a pen and starts scrawling immediately. “It’s gonna have six arms, and a cannon, and spikes all over!”

“How are we supposed to control a jaeger with six arms?” Mako asks him. “We only have two arms.”

“He can make it work,” Jake says, shrugging and pointing to Hermann. “Can’t you?”

“Well,” Hermann says slowly, “there _has_ been talk of expanding the jaeger design to include more limbs, but that would almost certainly require more than two pilots, and a Drift with more than two people has yet to be successfully attempted…” He trails off at the blank look on Jake’s face. “Er, that is, you’ll just have to be the first pilots to use a six-armed jaeger, won’t you?”

Jake nods, beaming, and gets back to work. Mako’s sketching looks more like she’s actually basing it off of jaeger blueprints; Hermann knows she often watches the J-Tech crew at work when she’s not busy with her studies. Satisfied that he’s got the two of them occupied for the time being, Hermann returns to his chalkboards, erasing a faulty string of numbers and starting again.  

The drawings manage to keep Mako and Jake entertained for all of seventeen minutes, and then Jake is whapping his drawing against Hermann’s leg and saying, “I’m done! Look at it!”

Hermann sets down his chalk and takes the drawing from Jake. It’s rather disproportionate, with a giant spiky head and — as promised — six long, waving arms, some of which hold swords while others have a cannon for a hand. “This is very good,” Hermann tells him. “You know, I don’t think we have a jaeger with a sword yet.”

“Mako likes swords,” Jake says, shrugging. “Do you really think you can make this for real? When I’m grown up?”

Hermann smiles down at him, folding the drawing and tucking it into his blazer pocket. “I’ll tell you what. I’ll keep it right here with me, and next time there’s an engineering meeting, I’ll bring it along, how’s that?”

Jake is delighted by this prospect, and Hermann has to resist the impulse to ruffle his hair. Mako sets down her pen and holds up her drawing, a bit shy. She’s done her best to replicate a blueprint, even labeling the various components of the design. Hers is a bit more reasonable than Jake’s, but she has included the same spiky head, as well as a sword.

“I know you’re not really going to give these to the engineers,” she whispers to him as he takes the drawing. “But you can keep it anyway, if you want to.”

Hemann doesn’t know what to say. Warmth balloons in his chest as he tucks Mako’s drawing away next to Jake’s, patting the pocket over his heart. “I’d like that very much. Thank you, Miss Mori.”

She smiles, looking briefly at the floor, and then points to his boards. “Is this jaeger code?”

“Ah,” Hermann says, unable to keep the pride out of his voice. “No, this is a bit of a secondary project of mine. I’m working to create a prediction model, one that will allow us to anticipate within hours the location and time of the next kaiju event. Once I’ve perfected it, we could have days or weeks of preparation time before an attack.”

Mako’s eyes roam the numbers, her brow furrowed. She looks up at him. “This will help so cities aren’t destroyed?”

Hermann remembers the images of Tokyo’s destruction in the wake of Onibaba’s attack. He places what he hopes is a comforting hand on Mako’s shoulder. “If it works the way I believe it will, we’ll be able to stop them before they even reach the shore.”

Mako nods, her eyes gleaming with something like determination. “Good. That’s good.”

For the next couple of hours, Hermann finds various ways to keep the children entertained and out of trouble, though he doesn’t get quite as much work done as he usually would. By dinnertime, Pentecost still hasn’t returned to pick up his children, so Hermann asks one of the interns to fetch them some food from the mess hall. Jake delights in getting to sit on top of Hermann’s desk while he eats dinner — Hermann supposes he’s being a bit more lenient than he should be, but he finds he’s enjoying spending time with the children more than he expected.

Pentecost sends him a message saying he’ll be later than anticipated, and Hermann assures him that he’s happy to continue looking after the children. Eventually, the interns file out for the day, calling goodnights to Hermann as they go. Hermann usually works late anyway, but he can tell Jake is getting sleepy and grouchy.

Mako taps Hermann on the shoulder. “It usually helps Jake fall asleep if our father reads him a story.” She glances around with a frown. “You don’t have any kid books, do you?”

Hermann shakes his head apologetically. “I’m afraid not, unless he’d like a theoretical physics text as a bedtime story.” At Mako’s raised eyebrows, Hermann adds, “I’m joking. I suppose I could… make something up?” He’s not confident in his ability to tell stories on the fly, that’s much more Newton’s area of expertise, but he had a wild imagination as a child and he’s sure he could tap back into some of those stories if he tries hard enough.

They end up sitting on the couch tucked in the back corner of the lab by the coffee maker, Jake sitting on one side of Hermann and Mako on the other. Hermann starts out a bit hesitant, a story of a little boy and girl who wanted to visit outer space. As he starts to describe their spaceship, the way the stars and galaxies look as they hurtle past the little round porthole window, Hermann grows more confident, both children are hanging onto his every word. The story goes on for nearly twenty-five minutes before Jake starts to nod off.

When Hermann lets his words trail off and Jake nuzzles closer against Hermann’s side in his sleep, Mako taps his arm. “Could you… tell a little more of the story?” she whispers.

Hermann beams at her. “Of course.”

\--

Hermann wakes with a start to the sound of familiar footsteps entering the lab. He must’ve fallen asleep at some point during his story, and he realizes that both Jake and Mako are asleep now, curled against either side of him. His arms are going a bit numb and he can already tell that his leg will be stiff and painful when he stands up, but he can’t find it in himself to care just yet.

He glances across the lab, where the lights are dimmed except for the glow of Newton’s specimen tanks and the desk lamp Hermann had left on before he started his little storytime. Newton is standing on the other side of the lab, apparently having just wheeled in a new tank holding a piece of viscera Hermann can’t even begin to guess the classification of. Newton puts his hands on his hips, nodding at the tank with a little “hmm,” and then turns around and spots Hermann.

His expression goes from startled, to confused, to outright delighted. “ _What_?” he stage-whispers, hurrying over to the back corner of the lab where Hermann sits. “Are you _babysitting_?”

“The Marshal required my assistance,” Hermann whispers back, a bit embarrassed, but Newton doesn’t look like he’s about to make fun of him. He’s still grinning like this is the best sight he’s ever come across. Hermann feels heat flood his cheeks and is doubly grateful for the low lighting.

Newton grabs one of the intern’s desk chairs and wheels it over so he can sit across from Hermann. They’re in one of their rare periods of amiability, where they fight less and Newton is more inclined to affection. Hermann can’t say he minds — he’s sure they’ll be back to their usual animosity within the month, but for now he’s all too happy to let Newton scoop Hermann’s legs into his lap and run a soothing hand along the sore muscles in his calf.

“I trust the retrieval went well?” Hermann asks, closing his eyes for a moment as some of his pain starts to dissipate.

“Yep. All they could tell me about this one is that it’s a gland, but they have no idea what its function is within the body. Should be fun.” Newton looks across the room at the tank with a fondness that Hermann finds both bizarre and privately endearing. “Anyway, who cares about that — you spent extended time with kids. In the _lab_. How’d _that_ go?”

“It was fine,” Hermann says honestly. “Young Jake here was _very_ fascinated by your alien guts, I practically had to drag him away.”

“No kidding? Nice!” Newton says, grinning. “Man, I hope I’m around next time Pentecost asks you to watch the kids, I could show him some of the samples. Maybe we’ve got a future xenobiologist on our hands.”

“Mm, I think not. They’re both rather set on being jaeger pilots.”

Newton wrinkles his nose. “Oh.” Catching the look on Hermann’s face, he adds, “I mean, that’s cool too. Not surprising, considering who their dad is.”

They lapse into a comfortable silence for a moment, both children still soundly asleep. Hermann feels himself close to nodding off again as well, Newton’s warm hands still massaging his calf, when Newton speaks.

“I always get so nervous around kids. Like, I don’t know what to say to them. What if I say something that they remember forever? That shit terrifies me.”

Hermann raises an eyebrow. “You don’t want your words to have a lasting impression?”

“No way, man. Didn’t an adult ever say some weird shit to you as a kid that always kinda stuck with you?” Newton asks. “When I was six, I put a bunch of lemons in my dad’s grocery basket and a random lady told me that if I ate too many lemons, I’d die.”

“What?” Hermann says, choking back a laugh that might wake the children. “That’s… well, I suppose it’s true. If you eat too much of anything you’ll die.”

“Yeah, but still! Who says that to a random kid?” Newton’s laughing now too. “I don’t wanna be some kid’s Lemon Lady, Hermann. That’s all I’m saying.” He shakes his head, his grin fading into something softer. “I couldn’t have spent all day with these two and not fucked it up somehow. It’s cool that they like you.”

“I… um, I suppose it is,” Hermann says. “I’m sure they’d like you, too, if they spent time with you.” He’s hyper-aware of every point of contact between Newton’s fingers and his own leg, the way Newton’s hand has stopped moving and is just resting now, right below his knee. Sleepiness is making him feel floaty.

They do fall asleep that way, with Hermann’s feet in Newton’s lap. Pentecost rouses them some time later, apologizing again for inconveniencing Hermann for so much longer than expected. Hermann assures him it was no trouble, he was more than happy to help, and he’s pleased to find that he means every word. When Mako and Jake wake, groggy and disoriented, Pentecost murmurs that they should say goodbye and thank Dr. Gottlieb before they leave. Mako gives Hermann a respectful bow, smiling at him. Jake gives Hermann a clumsy, half-asleep hug, and Hermann pats the back of his head fondly.

“Have a good night, doctors,” Pentecost says, leading the children out of the lab.

Mako turns back and calls softly, “Good night, Dr. Gottlieb!”

Hermann waves to her. Newton yawns and stretches, and then offers to walk Hermann back to his quarters. Hermann feels warmth unfurling in his chest, and it stays with him even after he’s drifted off to sleep.

**Author's Note:**

> yes, i DID steal newt's lemon lady story from a mbmbam episode. it felt like something that would happen to him. 
> 
> find me on twitter yelling abt dad hermann 24/7 @hermanngottiieb


End file.
